David Perdue and Jack Kingston are headed to a runoff in the Georgia Republican Senate primary after Kingston beat out former Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel for second place.

With 97 percent of precincts reporting, Perdue led with 30 percent, well shy of the majority needed to avoid the runoff. Kingston was a close second, with 26 percent, ahead of Handel, who was at 22 percent.

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The nominee will go up against Democrat Michelle Nunn, a nonprofit executive who faced no serious primary opposition, in November.

Two other Republican House members who gave up their seats to run for Senate, Paul Broun and Phil Gingrey, finished a distant fourth and fifth.

Perdue, the 64-year-old former CEO of Dollar General and Reebok, spent dramatically more than the others candidates. He introduced himself as the only real outsider in the race with memorable commercials by adman Fred Davis. The enduring popularity of his cousin with the same last name, former Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue, also gave him a big boost.

Kingston, 59, has represented the Savannah area in the House since 1993, posting a conservative voting record. He had the strong backing of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. But he has taken heat from prominent outside groups like the Club for Growth because of his role on the Appropriations Committee.

Nunn, the daughter of former Sen. Sam Nunn, is one of Senate Democrats’ few hopes of a pick-up in a year when the map and political climate favor Republicans. The seat is opening with the retirement of Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss. Nunn has avoided the kinds of mistakes a first-time candidate often makes and does not have a paper trail of supporting unpopular measures like Obamacare.

National Republicans had worried for much of the past year that Broun or Gingrey, both staunch social conservatives, would emerge as the nominee, putting Georgia in play. The fear was that they would make Todd Akin-like statements about abortion and other hot-button issues.

Democrats argue that the contentious primary will continue to drive the two candidates viewed as most electable to the right.

Kingston has been on TV with ads that accuse Perdue of destroying businesses and cutting 8,000 jobs while taking a million-dollar bonus.

Perdue has been running ads that call Kingston a big-spending Washington insider and defending himself as a job creator.

The top two finishers both made gaffes during the primaries.

Last week, Perdue told an editorial board that “both” revenue and spending cuts should be on the table to balance the budget. He subsequently tried to walk it back by arguing that he wants to grow the economy to generate more revenue. Earlier, he took heat for saying that Handel is not qualified for the Senate because she never earned a college degree.

Kingston made national headlines in December for suggesting that low-income students should “maybe sweep the floor in the cafeteria” to get subsidized school lunches.